An apparatus and method for producing an RFID inlay are known. Such inlays comprise a substrate, for example a film made of PET, an antenna on the substrate and made of punched or etched aluminum, and a chip with a functional connection to the antenna.
Normally, such an inlay is installed in a label, fabric tag, or paper ticker as a layer—that is, the end product, which is also called a smart label, smart tag, or smart ticket, has three layers, in particular the printed or unprinted cover material, the inlay, and the printed or unprinted substrate.
WO 2009/118455 [US2011/0005821] describes a method of making an inlay antenna directly on paper by gluing the full surface of a metal film to a substrate web that has previously been coated with glue in the exact shape, and then punching out the antenna shape with a laser without damaging the substrate web. Unlike in the case of label punch scrap that has a continuous grid structure that can be pulled away, the waste of the unneeded antenna shape that is not connected to the substrate web by the glue shape is made of individual, separated segments that must be collected and disposed of at great effort.